New satellite to sharpen Google Earth

Google Earth is already "sharp" enough. So sharp that insurgents in Iraq have used it to pinpoint troop positions, and so sharp that some countries want Google to restrict the images that it publishes of their land. A new satellite will be launched Tuesday that will produce even sharper images.

DigitalGlobe, provider of imagery
for Google Inc's (GOOG.O) interactive mapping program Google
Earth, said a new high-resolution satellite will boost the
accuracy of its satellite images and flesh out its archive.

The new spacecraft, dubbed WorldView I, is to be launched
on Tuesday.

Together with the company's existing Quickbird satellite,
it will offer half-meter resolution and will be able to collect
over 600,000 square kilometers of imagery each day, up from the
current collection of that amount each week, Chief Executive
Jill Smith told Reuters in a telephone interview.

The new satellite will produce images such that the objects can be pinpointed within 10 - 25 feet!